National co-chairs;
Zita Holbourne & Lee Jasper.
The four main objectives of the campaign are: To campaign and defend jobs and services. To highlight the disproportionate and adverse impact of reduction in public spending on black communities, provide a campaigning platform to fight against cuts, To work in partnership/build alliances with others facing similar attacks. Email: barac.info@gmail.com

Blog Archive

Friday, 10 February 2017

A public statement in defence of Labour Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott MP.

Defend Black Women

We write in defence of Shadow
Home Secretary Diane Abbott MP in the light of recent sustained attacks by
sections of the media and politicians on the first and longest serving black
woman MP in British politics.

We note the misogyny and
racism of some of her critics and state for the record that Diane Abbott MP
remains one of the most popular politicians within black and ethnic minority
communities and her own constituency residents of Hackney North & Stoke
Newington. It should be noted that since her groundbreaking election in 1987,
her constituents representing one of the most diverse areas of the country have
gone on to re-elect Diane with ever increasing electoral majorities.

Our general impression is
that there has been heavy reporting on trivial issues with regards to Diane
Abbott MP to create a moral panic about her leading position in government,
supported by some sections of the media and some right wing politicians, who
seem intent on unfairly denigrating one of Britain's most high-profile black
women politicians.

Media comments on her recent
illness, the attempt by David Davies MP to sexually assault Diane in Parliament
and the deluge of online denigration and racist abuse Diane has suffered are
unprecedented in their offensiveness,
scale and depth.

We welcome the suspension of
Conservative Councillor Alan Permain, the deputy chairman of the South Ribble
Conservative Association by the Conservative Party after he retweeted an
utterly despicable image portraying Diane Abbott MP as an ape wearing lipstick.

We believe the Prime Minister
Theresa May, needs to go further and offer a public apology to Ms Abbott for
the racist abuse she suffered from an elected member of the Conservative Party
and to permanently exclude Mr Permain from the Conservative Party.

We are deeply concerned, that
despite reporting serious threats of violence and being subjected to extreme
racist intimidation, the Metropolitan Police Services appears to have learned
no lessons from the tragic murder of Jo Cox MP.We call upon the London Mayor Sadiq Khan to launch an investigation into
the apparent failure of the police to investigate these reported incidents. We
are deeply concerned for the safety of Ms Abbott and that of her staff.

These facts taken together
with the wider contexts of rising levels of racist and religious attacks in
post Brexit Britain should constitute an anathema to all those in support of
democracy and human rights.

We stand with Diane Abbott MP
and call upon all those who oppose racism and sexism in public life to join
with us.